The Guild Members Are Obsessed with the Intern – New Ancient Gear (Part 2)
The Blood Demon had not touched your body in the data room.
“Don’t lie! You stole someone else’s body arbitrarily...”
......
The Blood Demon no longer responded to Soso’s words. And Soso continued to deny it in her heart, but she knew the truth.
The one who summoned Minsu to the data room was Soso herself, not the Blood Demon.
The business trip arranged because of Minsu’s Ancient Gear in the afternoon had been real, but there had been no need to call him to organize the data room.
The data room was managed by Executive Director Maria and Team Leader Seo Duho on their own, so Soso had only been anxious.
‘If… I lose Minsu to another woman again this time.’
And after the intern program business trip, that thought had dominated Soso to a terrifying degree. The night in Hong Kong.
Since that night with Minsu to calm his mana roads at Yeon Moon-woo’s hermitage, Soso had clearly awakened her own heart.
‘I don’t want to be stolen by anyone.’
The Soso of the dark Eins era and the current Soso were different. Her appearance, her family, her skills—she no longer thought she was inferior to Yuri.
But now standing at the same level as Yuri, another competitor had appeared: Arin.
So when she saw Minsu kissing Arin, Soso felt something inside her snap.
It was clearly the same feeling she had felt the moment the Blood Demon first awakened.
The moment she had accidentally witnessed Minsu and Yuri holding hands side by side, just like in the special training for second-years.
‘So… that was it.’
For the past few days she had felt like she wasn’t herself. She wanted to make Minsu her man. Because of that thought, nothing was going well.
So Soso had called Minsu to the data room. In Flame, she was Minsu’s superior. Calling him had not been difficult at all.
‘You are a man who is truly on the edge.’
Among the many words she had wanted to say to Minsu, the first thing that came out was the most absurd one.
But that word was also the most emotional at the same time. Once she said it, she could no longer stop the surging emotions.
If Minsu was really dating Seong Arin, she would have locked him in the data room and somehow made him her man.
Violence, blackmail, any means—she only had such thoughts in her mind. And she could not believe those rough thoughts were so different from her usual self.
‘It’s all because of the Blood Demon.’
She had justified it as the Blood Demon’s actions, as the Blood Demon dominating her.
But Soso knew it had all been her will: threatening him with Heavenly Demon Divine Art, asking about Arin’s relationship—everything had been her own doing.
So when she said Minsu wasn’t dating anyone, she had felt relieved, but at the same time a more insidious feeling had arisen.
‘Minsu… seems to have guilt toward me.’
She had deliberately mentioned the special training during the winter break of her second year. At that time, the mana flowing in Minsu’s mana roads had been incredibly turbulent.
That was evidence that Minsu had guilt beyond what Soso thought. And Soso had used that guilt.
To make Minsu kiss her, and at the moment he awakened the Blood Demon’s blood more, Soso had instinctively understood.
The aura of the Blood Demon she had unconsciously awakened was seductive and attractive enough to lure a man in an astonishing way.
Minsu kissing her had a surprisingly pounding heart—it was not a misunderstanding. At that time she had been suppressing Minsu’s mana roads, so she could sense his emotions.
That pounding heart was evidence that Minsu felt her as a woman.
‘If using the Blood Demon’s power is the way for me to have Minsu…’
It was wrong, yet she kept repeating it in her heart.
But Soso could not deny that the moment she had with Minsu that morning, the kiss with him, had been the moment she became closest to him after making him fall in love with her.
And now, with Minsu again.
Soso felt herself relying more on the Blood Demon.
***
She stopped by the lounge for a moment and finally arrived in Pyongyang.
“Such a huge city.”
Soso looked around. Her hometown Hong Kong, the city where Flame’s headquarters was, was not small either.
Pyongyang now was different. An international city that had grown into the center of the Two-Nation Alliance.
It was like seeing a real Shanghai before I reincarnated into this novel—a gigantic international city.
“The operations team has already reserved the hotel. After check-in, let’s head to the exchange.”
Following my words, Soso nodded. Luxurious hotels filled the surroundings. After putting their luggage in the fancy hotel between them, they agreed to meet again.
Of course, even this expensive hotel was a benefit provided by the Association to S-rank guilds. There was a bit of free time until they met again after an hour.
Sitting at the edge of the luxurious bed, I thought about the incident in the data room that morning again.
‘Blood Demon. It is indeed a variable. For the future.’
The Blood Demon inside Soso, which had not existed in the original story.
For Soso, who had to play a big role as Flame’s main dealer, having such uncontrollable elements was a seed of anxiety.
I thought about that variable coldly.
‘But I can control it.’
After joining Flame, I had checked all of Soso’s combat records, before and after.
There had been no trace of the Blood Demon there. Since Soso had not teamed up with her in combat yet, the trigger for the Blood Demon to dominate Soso was clearly me.
‘And the Blood Demon doesn’t obsess over me.’
Of course, that obsession of the Blood Demon was also a twisted result of my sin of using Soso’s heart. But since the trigger was me, it meant I could control Soso.
If Soso and the Blood Demon wanted me as myself, I could fulfill it.
‘Disgusting.’
But that thought came to me. I did not have much time, and thinking about the Red Lake that would start moving more seriously from now on.
It meant I had to be prepared to commit the same sin again to Soso.
Although I had decided not to love anyone, I could pretend to love. And perhaps it would be better to discipline my heart that way.
The Blood Demon’s seduction had been attractive and charming enough to captivate that Soso in the data room in one breath. At that moment, she had clearly felt her as a woman.
So to not be dominated by that emotion in the future, it would be easier to draw a line with fake love like that.
‘Enough. Now, other urgent matters first.’
To erase that emotion, I deliberately thought of something else.
The Eins Tragedy I had read in the morning, the organizing materials. Through those materials, I had recalled the words the Doubtful Monster had spat out.
The word that there were two vessels. Since the Doubtful Monster had been an executive of Red Lake, that word about vessels had undoubtedly been the action motive that transcended desire thinking, moving them.
‘And the story I heard from old man Yeon Moon-woo.’
Not only his hometown Muguk, but also other world countries summoned to Earth like the Slavia Kingdom. In the other world continent Eyletan where those countries existed, there had been legends passed down similarly for each.
Although the names differed by country and culture, the backbone had been similar.
The demons and their ruler, the Demon King, who had driven the land to the collapse of the old empire, and the legendary hero who had found light on the continent again from the Demon King.
‘Villains and desire thinking are similar to the demons and demon race described in that legend.’
And the apocalyptic myth or legend that the Demon King would revive someday had also been passed down long in Eyletan, as old man Yeon Moon-woo had told me.
Then, considering Red Lake’s purpose and that Si-woo’s actions in the original story had been close to the so-called hero’s destiny.
‘Is it the revival of the Demon King?’
And the vessel might be something related to that revival. I had organized my thoughts that way.
And I had laughed at the absurd scale.
The Demon King wanting the world’s destruction and the hero wanting to stop it—both had felt absurd.
But I was in a world where such things were really possible, reincarnated into a novel.
“Hoo. If Si-woo had lived, would the goddess of the White Cross Church have thrown a holy sword?”
Of course, the original Aca Hunter had been serialized before such content appeared.
It had been honestly my sincere feeling that if I were to replace Si-woo’s role in Flame, it would be good if there was a holy sword.
‘Well, if there isn’t, I have to create something similar.’
Even if not a holy sword, there were very special weapons in the current Earth. Ancient Gears. And the purpose of coming to this Pyongyang had been the Ancient Gear.
A+ rank Ancient Gear.
I was going to acquire that special gear at the special exchange here. Soon it would be time to tell Soso, so I went down to the hotel lobby.
***
Soso and I headed to Pyongyang’s special exchange. Among the many luxury hotels, the building that looked particularly flashy had the special exchange.
“Products of all kinds related to monsters and dungeons are traded here.”
Soso’s eyes had widened as if this was her first time. Of course, actual monster power stones or corpses were not scattered here.
‘Like a stock exchange.’
Monitors had been full everywhere. And real-time price fluctuations of monster-related products had been displayed there.
Since monster acquisitions were not widely used in advanced industries or civilians’ daily lives, the items had been very diverse.
Of course, Soso and I were not from Flame’s operations or finance team, so we had passed the exchange and gone to another floor.
“Trading of Ancient Gears is done here.”
As Soso had said, the floor where the two had arrived had been full of people who looked like hunters.
And unlike the free trade district in Incheon, the hunters here had all had different gazes. After all, this was a special exchange. It did not handle low-grade Ancient Gears.
So all had been hunters belonging to formal guilds. Even freelancers had been registered license hunters with the Association.
I had sat on a chair with Soso for a moment. She had put down the bag she was carrying.
“Thank you, Team Leader.”
“It’s light, so no problem.”
And I had brought the Ancient Gears obtained as rewards and bets from the past intern trip. Soso had helped carry those gears.
As they had been direct rewards from the Association, all had been B+ grade superior items. There had been four in total.
Flame had provided A-rank Ancient Gears to higher grade than that to intern Dong-hyuk and Arin, but that had been a very special case.
‘You are probably able because Yuri doesn’t skimp on equipment investment.’
I had heard that when Flame’s budget was insufficient, even she had used her own money. An A-rank Ancient Gear was basic over 100 million.
Of course, Yuri being able to do that had also been possible because of the large contract with Pyotr’s Solaris, but.
Anyway, these Ancient Gears obtained as rewards had done their job.
‘With this, my need for Ancient Gear is settled.’
Although I was the owner of the S-rank Ancient Gear Ruby, Ruby was acting as a mana heart and could not be used as an Ancient Gear.
So for serious missions, I had needed Ancient Gear.
‘S-rank dungeon exploration is coming up soon.’
Since I planned to unseal more in the future, mana stabilizing and special effect activating gears had been essential.
And luckily, there had been an Ancient Gear obtained as reward. But even though all had been B+ grade, they had failed to contract with me.
‘No, rather than failure, the gears had feared contracting with me first.’
Weapons with will, special items—Ancient Gears. B+ grade was high-grade gear, and due to my body’s special situation, double contract with the gear might have been possible.
But all those gears had feared Ruby, the S-rank gear. All four had failed to contract.
‘So I had to come here in the end.’
The high-grade gear that did not fear Ruby. To find that gear, this place where all gears in the world were traded had been the most ideal.
After visiting an office in the exchange for a moment, I had told Soso.
“Emotional request is entrusted. Shall we go up to the upper floor?”
With the certification of this exchange, I could sell the reward and bet gears more expensively. After entrusting the emotional request, the two had headed to the upper floor.
The VIP exchange on that floor had been the destination of this trip.
But at the entrance, the hunters on duty had blocked the two.
“Stop. Anyone cannot enter here.”